Lamp housing assemblies are well known in the art. One example is the conventional automotive lamp housing assembly. Such an assembly typically includes a lamp housing to which is attached a lens. The lamp housing assembly is structured and arranged to house a lamp therein having connectors attached thereto for electrical and mechanical connection to the wiring system of the vehicle. A reflector is also provided within the lamp housing assembly although in some embodiments the lamp housing may comprise a body which forms the reflector. In either situation the lens is typically glued to the lamp housing.
Automotive lamp housings and lenses are getting larger and generally have curved and other awkward forms. Therefore, special consideration must be given to the manner in which the lens is adhered to the lamp housing to form the lamp housing assembly. For example, it is very important that the lamp housing assembly be dimensionally stable. If the lens is not properly fitted to the lamp housing, or if the two pieces move while the glue sets, an incorrect mating will result and one or both of the parts may have to be scrapped. Since the gluing of the lens to the lamp housing is approximately the last step in the fabrication of the lamp assembly, and most of the manufacturing expense has therefore already been incurred, scrapping of the parts at this point tends to be very expensive. Although the improperly mated parts could be carefully taken apart, cleaned and reassembled, this procedure adds to the manufacturing cost. In addition, reassembly requires that the lens and lamp housing be held together again while the newly applied glue cures, there being no assurance that improper mating will not occur again to the same lamp housing assembly.
In order to assure that the lens is properly fitted to the lamp housing, it is known to provide the lamp housing with a glue track which contains glue and into which part of the lens is inserted for bonding the lens to the lamp housing. In order to insure that the lamp housing and lens do not move while the glue sets, the lens and lamp housing are structured to provide a configuration which permits metal clips which are external to the glue track to be clipped over the lens and the lamp housing to hold the two together during the bonding operation. When bonding is complete the clips are removed. However, some known lamp housing assemblies are structured so as not to permit the use of such external clips. For example, in dual shot lens designs which have a wrap around lip on the outboard side, there is no satisfactory manner in which to provide the required clips. In some instances when this occurs, it is possible to provide snaps which are either on slides or in a diepull. Such snaps serve to hold the lens and lamp housing together during the gluing operation. However, there are instances where this is not an option due to the fact that there is no way to slide a snap on the lens. This is a problem in the dual shot lens designs. One further option is to rely upon a conventional accumulator to retain the lens to the lamp housing. However, this is a costly and time consuming fabrication technique. In addition, in all instances where clips, snaps or holding frames are used to hold the lens and lamp housing together during the gluing operation, skilled labor is required to consistently assemble the lamp housing and lens correctly,and human error is still possible. In addition, such hardware is typically removed and recycled into the process once the glue has set. Such removal and recycling provides an additional fabrication step. Although it has been known to form the latches or clips directly in the plastic of the lens and the lamp housing, providing such structural configurations requires additional molding design. In addition, since such latches or clips are permanent features of the lamp housing and lens, when the gluing process has been completed, the latches and clips remain exposed and to this extent provide an unaesthetic design and may even interfere with how the lamp housing assembly fits with the rest of the vehicle.